Congress opposes shifting of Tata Steel plant to Duburi

The Congress MP from Berhampur has opposed the shifting of the site of Tata Steel's proposed steel plant from Gopalpur to Duburi.

Tata Steel had acquired about 3,200 acres of land at Gopalpur in late 90s to set up a 10 million tonne shore based steel plant there. However, it later shelved the project on the plea of lack of infrastructure to support the venture.

After a lull of about five years, the company has now come up with yet another proposal to set up a six million tonne steel plant at Duburi in Jajpur district at an estimated cost of Rs 15,400 crore.

Tata Steel managing director B. Muthuraman in a recent meeting with the chief minister had urged the latter to provide the company with 2,500 acres of land at Duburi to set up the new project. The state government, meanwhile, is reportedly trying to accommodate the Tatas' request for land by allotting them the patch from out of the area earmarked for Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Duburi.

"If Tatas are really interested to set up a steel project in Orissa, they can set it up at Gopalpur where they still hold on to 3,200 acres of land lying unutilized", says Chandrasekhar Sahu, the Congress MP from Berhampur.

"It is ridiculous on the part of the government to entertain the request of the company for allotment of fresh patch of land at Duburi", he added.

Sahu had recently met Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik and drew his attention on the matter. Though the chief minister had assured him to look into the matter and prevail upon the Tatas to set up the plant at Goaplpur, there is now a move by some bureaucrats to allot them the land at Duburi, he alleged.

"If that happens, we will launch agitations and go to the court of law to stall such designs", he added.

On another front, the Tatas' claim for allotment of fresh iron ore reserves of 540 million tonne to cater to the needs of the proposed steel plant has come in for severe criticism. The iron ore need of the company is calculated on its 50 years requirement while the state government guideline only assures the raw material linkage to a new plant for 25 years.

On that basis, the state government's obligation to meet Tatas requirement comes to about 270 million tonnes for 25 years.

Again the guideline says that if any company owns any mines or has operation control in any mine in the state, his requirement will be adjusted against its present control of the reserves.

As Tatas already own reserves of about 300 million tonnes in Joda sector of Orissa, by the standards of the state guideline, they are not eligible for allotment of any fresh mines, pointed out an industry department official.